


First Day

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: rt hybrid AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 09:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1977480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray's first day at Roosterteeth goes about as well as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Day

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Ray fiddled with a beanie between his hands and his foot tapped rapidity against the tile floor. It was his first day at Rooster Teeth and he was ecstatic, thrilled even. He wasn't out of a job anymore, always a plus, and he was going to work full-time at Rooster Teeth of all places. People would kill for the job he just landed...or complain on internet at least. Dream job didn't even cover it. 

Needless to say, Ray was excited. However, being a rabbit hybrid and therefore naturally prone to being a bit jumpy (pun unintended), sometimes his excited and 'nervous as hell' reactions got mixed up and now he was feeling more of the latter rather than the former. 

“Ray! We gotta go!” 

“Jesus!” Michael's voice punctuated with the loud pounding on the door made Ray jump and accidentally fling his hat against the mirror. Letting out a short curse, he snatched it back before jamming it on his head, folding his ears down. Not that the hat was some sort of way to keep people from figuring out that he was a rabbit. If that had been the case, talk about the worst kept secret ever: Gee I wonder what those things sticking out of the back of his hat are! Could they possibly be ears? I guess we'll never know.

Naw, wearing it just made him feel better for some reason. 

“No, it's Michael. An easy mistake to make, I know.” 

Ray snorted and spun around, opening the door before the other guy could start abusing it again, which it looked like he'd been about to, one hand raised and tail twitching behind him impatiently. 

Michael was letting Ray stay over while he got his things in order, which was pretty fucking cool of him. Apartment hunting kind of sucked and crashing on the cat-hybrid's couch wasn't a bad deal for now. Despite what his videos would have you believe, he wasn't nearly as rage-y in person...unless Ray was kicking his ass at video games. A controller had almost been broken last night. Whoops. 

“The fuck were you doing in here for twenty minutes? Don't tell me, you were jerking off.” Michael gave him a mock scandalized look at the suggestion. 

“Well you know us rabbits,” Ray made the gesture to go along with it, grinning. That was the joke that never stopped telling itself, even if it wasn't remotely true.

“Alright well if you're done humping the counter, let's go, bunny-boy.” 

Ray snatched his backpack off the floor, swinging it on his shoulders before following the other out the door. 

Time for his first day. 

–

Ray had visited Rooster Teeth before, but he hadn't met everyone there. Case and point: Jack Pattillo.

Everything had been fine, Geoff had been taking him around, reacquainting (or just plain acquainting) him with his new coworkers, in his own half-drunk way. At some point his goat-boss-person had finished his can and started munching on it distractedly while giving him the lowdown. Geoff's lazy countenance and simple way of explaining things calmed Ray's nerves somewhat; and his foot had ceased thudding against the floor every time they would stop to go over something the ram-hybrid thought would be important. 

The two-person tour ended at Achievement Hunter itself, where Geoff pushed the half closed door all the way open to reveal his new base of operations. Michael was already set up, editing some stuff on his computer and sitting next to him was a bird-hybrid that appeared to be all wings and no coordination. Chirping and whistling every once in a while, his wings moved all over the place, barely missing Michael, whose tail was twitching, what little patience he had clearly wearing thin. 

“The winged prick over there is Gavin.” Geoff informed him. Hearing his name, the hybrid in question turned towards them and smacked Michael in the face with his left wing. Michael's ears lay flat on his head and he hissed while spitting out a feather. 

“Goddammit, Gavin! Watch it!” 

“And you already know Michael.” Geoff continued, undeterred, finishing the rest of his can and moving over to his desk to grab another one and popping it open with one horn and taking no notice of the ensuing chaos. 

“Sorry, Michael!” Gavin's accent butchered the guy's name so badly it sounded more like 'Michool'; and honestly he didn't look all that sorry, barely containing a smile while Michael glared daggers. Keeping eye contact, Michael slowly reached over and knocked a half-full cup off the other man's desk. Gavin let out a hurt sounding squawk and whined out Michael's name as the other went back to work on his computer, revenge taken for the moment. 

“And this,” Ray jumped a bit, having forgotten the tour-de-Geoff wasn't quite finished, “is Jack.” 

Jack stood up from his desk and Ray had to resist the urge to back up a couple steps as he wondered how exactly he'd missed the fact that there was a fucking lion in the room. 

Ray had known of Jack Pattillo, the guy was on AHWU with Geoff, he'd seen the videos so of course he'd known that Jack was a lion. Somewhere in the back of his mind, however, he'd thought meeting Jack would be like meeting a larger Michael. He got along with Michael just fine. Alright, admittedly their first meeting had gone a little rocky and had somehow ended with Ray on top of a fridge and refusing to come down, but details weren't really important. He was used to the guy now and had thought that that ease would somehow translate over to Jack. 

As it turns out, that was not the case. 

“Welcome to the team, Ray.” 

Jack easily towered over Ray, with a large red mane that blended into a beard and fangs much larger than Michael's. Everything about the lion was just...bigger. Ray had dealt with wolves and the like in New York (predators appeared to gravitate towards the big cities) but never a lion. This was new territory and Ray found he didn't really like it. 

Jack offered him a toothy grin and a hand, and Ray couldn't tell if that was just how the guy smiled or if there was something threatening about it. It was around this time that Ray was simultaneously relieved and annoyed that he'd decided to wear his hat today, as his ears did their best to stand straight up but instead just succeeded in almost pushing the brim into his eyes. Ray quickly reached up and adjusted it before shaking the offered hand, his heart beating rapidly. 

Predatory-hybrids had the luxury of forgetting that they were predators, being on top of the hierarchy had its perks. Preys? Not so much. With their predisposition to constantly be on the lookout for threats as well as having instincts leaning more towards flight than fight, it was something that was pretty hard to forget. 

Jack had gone on to say something else and, despite being mostly ears, Ray heard none of it. With adrenaline going into overload, Ray backed away from Jack, almost running into Gavin in the process. 

“Yeah, uh, I'll be right--” Ray dodged out the door faster before anyone could properly react and Jack glanced at the other three, perplexed. 

“Is he alright?” 

–

Ray realized with some amusement, but mostly irritation, that he was spending a distressing amount of time this morning in various bathrooms. 

He'd pulled off his hat and now everything was twitching nervously from his ears to his nose and even his tail. His foot hadn't stopped thudding against the ground since he's locked the door to talk himself down, his breathing coming in short gasps. Sometimes being a rabbit really sucked. 

For the second time that morning, there was a banging on the door. 

“Ray?” 

And for the second time, it was Michael. 

“Ray what are you doing in there?” 

“Oh well, y'know.” 

“...Ray, open the door.” 

He did. 

Michael was standing on the other side looking vaguely concerned, which wasn't like him. Ray offered him an unconvincing grin in return. 

“Sup?” 

“What the fuck was that about?” 

Michael's ability to approach a touchy subject with the utmost sensitivity was truly a gift, “What? Nothing.” 

Michael raised an eyebrow, unimpressed and unconvinced, and Ray sighed. 

“Alright fine. It's--” 

“Jack?” 

“Yeah.” 

To Ray's indignation, Michael snorted, “Dude, Kerry the merry mouse is more threatening than Jack.” 

In spite of his near panic attack from moments before, Ray's surprise got the better of him and he laughed. He wasn't really convinced of what Michael said...at all. But this was his new job and Jack was someone he'd have to work with now so, time to suck it up. “If you say so.” 

Ray ran a hand through his hair before shoving the hat back on, “Alright let's get back there before everyone thinks I'm insane.” 

“Too late,” Michael assured him as they started walking back to Achievement Hunter, “don't worry though, they can't think you're any more fucking stupid than Gavin.” 

As if on cue, a crash sounded from the office, and Ray jumped as a short scream echoed through the building followed by loud and sudden laughter. When they reached the doorway, they found Gavin on the floor surrounded by cases of video games, and Jack and Geoff laughing their asses off. 

“Goddammit, Gavin! We just organized those!” Michael stomped towards Gavin and proceeded to argue with him. 

Seeing Ray reenter the room after Michael, Jack glanced his way, but seemed to understand what he'd done wrong last time and kept his distance, which Ray ultimately felt grateful for. 

“There you are, Ray.” Geoff stepped over Michael and Gavin, not even taking much care not to step on them, to throw an arm around Ray's shoulders. He gestured to where Ray would be working (in the corner over by Michael), and was running him through some more information, having to raise his voice to be heard over two arguing. 

Ray glanced at Jack who'd reseated himself in front of his computer, to Geoff taking a swig of his drink, to Michael yelling at Gavin, and felt a sense of that nervous excitement again. 

This was going to take some getting used to.

**Author's Note:**

> I finally got around to posting this on AO3 (I know, it's about time). I've changed my writing blog so if you want to look that one up on tumblr you can find it at xray-is-ready.tumblr.com. I've got a few things in the works right now, look forward to it. Hit me up, if you'd like! 
> 
> Also, I'm still wondering if I want to write a sequel to this one. Let me know if you'd be interested.


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